After World War II, the United States – newly equipped with the ultimate deterrent against attack, nuclear weapons – discarded the model of the nations’ founders, who cautioned against permanent or entangling alliances. The United States created many questionable...
First Debate Showed That Both Major Candidates Stink on Foreign Policy
Although Hillary seemed more likable than usual in the first presidential debate and Trump was his old angry and agitated self, they both still have record-breaking unfavorable ratings as candidates. Yet that is because overwhelmingly, people just don’t like their...
Why President Obama Has Difficulty Garnering Respect Internationally
As President Obama gave his valedictory speech to the United Nations General Assembly and has recently returned from a farewell tour of East Asia, it sure seems like other countries were dissing him. Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines – a small, poor...
Will Hillary Lead Us Deeper Into a Quagmire in Syria?
Unless some unforeseen miracle happens for Donald Trump, Hawkish Hillary (at least as accurate a nickname as Crooked Hillary) is likely to be the next president of the United States. Although Hillary has run legitimate political ads implying that Trump's temperament...
We Don’t Know If the Department of Defense Is Actually Providing Security
The U.S. Army has been falsifying its accounting records to the tune of $6.5 trillion for the year, according to a recent report by Department of Defense auditors. And the Department of Defense has been falsifying its accounting on a massive scale for years, as was...
Turkish-Russian Rapprochement Shouldn’t Worry the United States
Turkey's recent flirtation with Russia, by mending fences, is designed as a signal to the United States, its major NATO benefactor, that Turkish ire is up over perceived lukewarm Western support for its broad domestic crackdown after the recent failed coup attempt. In...
Trump Needs To Flesh Out a Strategic Vision for U.S. Foreign Policy
Now that Donald Trump has won the Republican nomination, capitalizing on his image as a nationalist tough guy, he needs to fill in some of the details on his strategic vision for a proper American role in the world. By correctly declaring the NATO alliance obsolete...
Trading Places: Swapping the Roles of Police and Military Is Bad for the Republic
Lately, the tactics of local police departments have been in the news because of mass shootings at Orlando and Fort Myers nightclubs, questionable police killings of civilians in suburban St. Paul and Baton Rouge, and retaliatory slayings of police in Baton Rouge and...
Should Police Use Bombs To Kill Criminals?
In the wake of the two seemingly outrageous slayings of African American men by police in Minnesota and Louisiana and the equally heinous retaliatory killings of five police officers in Dallas by a black former Army Reservist, questions have been raised in all three...
At Their Own Peril, Americans Are Fuzzy on History
The nation's observed birthday – July 4th – always brings forth what passes for modern day "patriotism": prominent displays of the flag everywhere, celebration of the military, picnics, backyard barbecues, and of course fireworks. There is even...